Old Man Winter may pack slightly lower rates for gas

Southwest Gas Corp. has some good news for consumers struggling to pay their summertime power bills: The gas distribution company is asking state regulators to lower its bills by as much as 8 percent before the winter heating season begins.

This coming winter, the typical Southern Nevada residential customer, who uses 6,600 cubic feet of gas, will pay $6.80 less, bringing their bill to $77.43.

State consumer advocate Eric Witkoski called the rate change "good news."

He noted that a scheduled quarterly rate adjustment could affect the size of the actual decrease, although Witkoski doesn't expect any change would greatly affect the proposed 8 percent reduction.

The utility adjusts its rates both yearly and quarterly to reflect changes in the cost of gas.

Every three months, Southwest Gas raises or lowers rates to reflect actual gas costs over the last 12 months. At the end of the year, the company asks the Public Utilities Commission to adjust rates to pay off the amount owed for past gas purchases.

A year ago, the utilities commission allowed Southwest Gas to raise rates to recover $35 million owed by customers for past gas expenses.

Since then, customers have paid off that balance through higher rates. In May, Southwest Gas asked the commission to lower rates because the balance was close to zero.

Meanwhile, the quarterly rate changes are usually small but they typically prevent a build up of new balances owed the company for gas purchases.

State officials ordered Southwest Gas to start making the quarterly adjustments in May 2006.

Since then, the quarterly adjustments "have smoothed out the changes that occur," a Southwest Gas representative said.

"It's good news that we're able to lower the rate," Witkoski said, "and it's also good that we're adjusting quarterly so that we don't have large (unpaid) balances like we did in the past."

It's not clear when the rate decrease will become effective, but it appears that the utilities commission will order the change before the arrival of cold weather in November.

The annual rate change would lower summertime natural gas bills by 6.3 percent. The typical residential summer bill for 2,000 cubic feet would decrease by $2.06 to $29.68.

The Public Utilities Commission will give consumers an opportunity to comment on the rate decrease at a meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Aliante Library, 2400 Deer Springs Way in North Las Vegas.